Suspect Arrested in Homophobic Attack on NYC Subway

Allasheed Allah is charged with a hate crime in an attack that left a woman with a fractured spine.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

December 13 2018 3:07 PM EST

December 13 2018 3:12 PM EST

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New York City police have arrested the man they believe shoved a woman to the floor of a subway car, causing her to break her spine, after he called her "dyke."

Allasheed Allah, 54, of Manhattan's East Harlem neighborhood, was charged Thursday with assault and aggravated harassment, both as hate crimes, NBC News reports.

The attack took place November 30 on a train bound from Queens to Manhattan. The victim, a 20-year-old woman, had received a kiss on the cheek from another woman. An argument ensued between her and a male passenger. "He said, 'Do those gay things in front of me one more time and watch what happens,'" the victim told New York news site Gothamist.

An argument ensued, during which the man called the woman "dyke," punched her, and pushed her to the floor of the train car. "I felt him right behind me, I felt a punch in my back," the woman told Gothamist. "And it all happened so quick it was just a blur." The man got off the train at the next stop. The woman was treated for a fractured spine at Elmhurst Hospital Center.

The assault was recorded on cell phone video. Police put out images of the suspected attacker and sought the public's help in tracking him down - and they said today that they did receive a tip that aided in the search.